Click below for the manuscript of the second sermon in the series "Recognizing and Responding to God's Gift of the Holy Spirit.
John 14:17 NIV [17] the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.
We all like to receive gifts. Parents enjoy receiving gifts from their children, and children enjoy receiving gifts from their parents. Husbands enjoy receiving gifts from their wives, and wives enjoy receiving gifts from their husbands. People enjoy receiving gifts from their friends. Employers occasionally receive gifts from their employees, and employees enjoy receiving gifts from their employers. There are times when we give gifts to strangers, and there are times when we receive gifts from strangers.
Many different options are available to someone who is eager to give a gift to someone he or she loves. Some gifts are inanimate in nature and last a long time. Others, like cut flowers, are perishable. There are also living gifts like puppies, kittens, and lovely growing plants.
God our Father has seen fit to give a living gift of a different kind. A gift that lives in each of his children at the moment of their conversion, the moment of their salvation. That gift is the Holy Spirit, who is the living presence of God himself.
Scripture
John 14:15-21 NIV [15] “If you love me, keep my commands. [16] And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— [17] the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. [18] I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. [19] Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. [20] On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. [21] Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”
Introduction
This new series that I started last week is “Recognizing and Responding to God’s Gift of the Holy Spirit”
We all like to receive gifts. Parents enjoy receiving gifts from their children, and children enjoy receiving gifts from their parents. Husbands enjoy receiving gifts from their wives, and wives enjoy receiving gifts from their husbands. People enjoy receiving gifts from their friends. Employers occasionally receive gifts from their employees, and employees enjoy receiving gifts from their employers. There are times when we give gifts to strangers, and there are times when we receive gifts from strangers.
But God is the greatest giver of gifts. James declared,
James 1:16-18 NIV Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.
Many different options are available to someone who is eager to give a gift to someone he or she loves. Some gifts are inanimate in nature and last a long time. Others, like cut flowers, are perishable. There are also living gifts like puppies, kittens, and lovely growing plants.
God our Father has seen fit to give a living gift of a different kind. A gift that lives in each of his children at the moment of their conversion, the moment of their salvation. That gift is the Holy Spirit, who is the living presence of God himself.
Text:
John 14:17 NIV [17] the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.
I. The Holy Spirit is a living gift.
The Holy Spirit is not just the influence that comes from God. The Holy Spirit is more than a force, like gravity or electricity. The Holy Spirit is a real person. Jesus uses the personal masculine pronoun in our text to describe this living gift from God.
John 14:17 NIV [17] the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.
A. The Holy Spirit speaks so He is a communicator.
John 16:12-15 NIV [12] “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. [13] But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. [14] He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. [15] All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”
Revelation 2:7 NIV [7] Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.
B. The Holy Spirit intercedes as a divine intercessor in the interest of those who have received Jesus Christ as Savior.
Romans 8:26 NIV In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.
We talked about this two weeks ago when we said that through Jesus Christ and the precious living gift of the Holy Spirit we can have deliverance now from the power of sin, and ultimately, we will have complete redemption and salvation from the very presence of sin.
The Holy Spirit not only seeks to aid us in our prayer efforts, but Jesus Himself intercedes in heaven for us according to God’s will.
Romans 8:34 NIV Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.
C. The Living Holy Spirit testifies concerning Jesus Christ.
John 15:26 NIV [26] “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me.
The Holy Spirit bears witness through the followers of Jesus, through those of us who have accepted and acknowledged Him as our Lord and Savior. The world is hostile to Jesus and His cause today but the Spirit of truth will counter this hostility by testifying about Jesus, who is the Truth. The Spirit is a powerful prosecutor and persuader. He exalts Christ in a world that does not accept Him as the Lord and Savior of mankind. The living Holy Spirit supernaturally works through us to both witness to the lost and build other believers.
D. The Holy Spirit leads us, the servants of Christ, in service
The living Holy Spirit shows us where we should go.
Philip is a perfect example.
Acts 8:27-29 NIV [27] So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake (which means “queen of the Ethiopians”). This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, [28] and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the Book of Isaiah the prophet. [29] The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.”
The Holy Spirit Sets People Apart for Ministry
The Holy Spirit spoke to the people at church in Antioch and told them to set apart two men for the ministry.
Acts 13:2-4 NIV [2] While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” [3] So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off. [4] The two of them, sent on their way by the Holy Spirit, went down to Seleucia and sailed from there to Cyprus.
The Holy Spirit Sometimes Stops the Plans of Believers
In the Book of Acts, we read
Acts 16:6 NIV [6] Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia.
This teaches us that God may sometimes stop our plans because He has something better in mind.
The Holy Spirit May even Guide us into Difficult Circumstances
There's the an example of the Holy Spirit leading the Apostle Paul into suffering and jail.
Acts 20:22-23 NIV [22] “And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. [23] I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me.
So, it is possible that the Holy Spirit, for reasons known only to God, could guide believers into areas where they will suffer and be persecuted. However, He always knows best.
We know that God’s ways are not our ways. God’s ways are different from ours. Often He will work in ways in which we did not expect or imagine.
Isaiah 55:8-9 NIV [8] “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. [9] “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
We must always respect the fact that He knows better than we know. The living Holy Spirit will guide the believer in Jesus Christ if we let Him. Because His ways and thoughts are not ours there are a number of ways that He guides us. So we need to be alert for the various ways and means by which He will guide us.
E. The Holy Spirit functions as a guide into our understanding of divine truth.
John 16:13 NIV [13] But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.
God’s Spirit is the Spirit of truth. He will lead us into the truth, and allow us the believers to understand the things of God.
The Apostle Paul wrote that we could know the things of God through the guidance of the Holy Spirit. He put it this way.
1 Corinthians 2:10-12 NIV these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us.
We can now have a better understanding of the things of God because of the guidance of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
F. The living Holy Spirit appoints spiritual leaders for the churches.
Acts 20:28 NIV [28] Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood.
1 Corinthians 12:4-11, 28-31 NIV There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work. Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines. And God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? Now eagerly desire the greater gifts. And yet I will show you the most excellent way.
The church must be organized, or it will die. Leadership is a part of spiritual organization. A leader needs something besides a vote of a congregation to be effective. They need gifts the living Holy Spirit gives.
II. As I said earlier, the living Holy Spirit is a divine person.
The Holy Spirit is not a mystic “power” or “thing.” or an “it” as if the Spirit is a thing or force that we can control or use. A person is a living, intelligent being, with a mind, feelings, and emotions. The Holy Spirit has attributes that only a person could have. He has intelligence, feelings, a will, He prays, He teaches, and He directs.
He has intelligence
1 Corinthians 2:3-15 NIV [13] This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. [14] The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. [15] The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments,
He has feelings
Holy Spirit can be grieved by improper conduct within the body of Christ.
Ephesians 4:30 NIV. [30] And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
We can grieve the living Holy Spirit through dependency on self, pride, selfishness, distrust, worry, fear, anger, resentment, unforgiveness, hatred and similar self-centered, negative actions.
He has a will
The Spirit gives the gifts to whoever he decides to give them to so He has a will.
1 Corinthians 12:11 NIV [11] All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.
He prays
Sometimes we cannot pray because words cannot express the needs we feel. The Spirit's response of sighs too deep for words shows how God through his Spirit enters into our experiences.
Romans 8:26 NIV [26] In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.
The living Holy Spirit teaches
John 14:26 NIV [26] But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you (teach you) of everything I have said to you.
The teaching that Jesus did before He was crucified presented a new way of living in accordance with the way God wanted man to relate to Him and to each other, but it wasn’t complete. It was going to be completed by the coming of the Holy Spirit. His ministry to believers would be to teach.
A. This living gift of the divine presence of God comes into our lives to purify us and reproduce in us the character and the personality of the Lord Jesus Christ which is God’s purpose for you.
Romans 8:28-30 NIV [28] And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. [29] For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. [30] And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
Hebrews 9:14 NIV [14] How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!
B. The Holy Spirit knows all of the things of God as well as the things of man.
This divine person who has come to dwell within us knows all about us and, and at the same time, has perfect understanding of the mind of God. He seeks to lead us to think the thoughts of God.
1 Corinthians 2:9-11 NIV [9] However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”— the things God has prepared for those who love him— [10] these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. [11] For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.
Here are the thoughts He wants us to have
Philippians 4:8 NIV [8] Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.
D. The Holy Spirit, this living gift is God Himself
One of the most convincing statements in the Bible about the Holy Spirit being God is found in Acts 5. When Ananias lied about the price of a piece of property, Peter said that Satan had filled Ananias’s heart to “lie to the Holy Spirit” and concluded by saying that Ananias had “lied to God”.
Acts 5:3-4 NIV [3] Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? [4] Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied just to human beings but to God.”
Peter reveals that the Holy Spirit is God. Lying to the Holy Spirit is lying to God.
This living gift of the Holy Spirit is God Himself, his living presence living in every believer.
Prayer
Thank You, Lord, for giving us another Helper, the Holy Spirit, to teach us and bring to our remembrance all things that You have spoken. Father, forgive us if we have grieved Your Spirit from time to time. Forgive us for acts of sinfulness such as: pride, rebellion, disobedience, selfishness, hatred, and idolatry Holy Spirit, thank You, for producing in us the fruit of love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control as we walk in You. Holy Spirit, because of You, we have the power to love unconditionally.
Conclusion
I want to end today with a message for the unbelievers. These who have not accepted the invitation to the forgiveness of sin and eternal life offered by God, through His Son Jesus.
The Holy Spirit of God invites each nonbeliever to put faith in Jesus Christ and to receive him as Lord and Savior. He uses the Bible, the church, your family, your friends, and the emptiness of your heart and this plea from me to communicate this invitation.
If you will receive Jesus Christ as Savior, the Holy Spirit will enter you to work God’s good work within you. He will work for your eternal welfare.
There is a scripture from the Bible that says
Hebrews 3:7-8 NIV [7] So, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear his voice, [8] do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the wilderness,
So do something else that it says in the Bible
Romans 10:9-10 NIV [9] If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. [10] For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.
Sermon Audio
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